Doris Duke Preservation Awards

A joint program of the Newport Restoration Foundation and the City of Newport, the
annual Doris Duke Historic Preservation Awards encourage excellence in historic
preservation efforts within the City of Newport, Rhode Island by recognizing exemplary
preservation projects and educational activities and acknowledging individuals who
have made significant, life-time contributions to the preservation of the built
environment.

The 11th annual Doris Duke Preservation Awards will take place September 8, 2017.

2017 Doris Duke Historic Preservation Awards

HELP US ACKNOWLEDGE EXCELLENCE IN HISTORIC PRESERVATION BY NOMINATING PROJECTS, COMPLETED IN THE LAST THREE YEARS, THAT ENRICH AND ADD VALUE TO THE CHARACTER OF NEWPORT.

Since its inception eleven years ago, the Doris Duke Preservation Awards have raised over $550,000 to support historic preservation in Newport. Doris Duke established the Newport Restoration Foundation in 1968 with a radical idea: rescue and restore Newport’s oldest houses -- which were, by-and-large, deteriorated and threatened by demolition -- and lease them to resident-stewards with a corps of skilled craftsmen on staff to maintain them to top standards. Doris Duke’s vision saved endangered historic streetscapes for the enjoyment and benefit of visitors and citizens of Newport. Funds raised through the Doris Duke Preservation Awards provide crucial support to the NRF’s continued efforts to advance historic preservation activities into the future through advocacy, education and additional building rehabilitation projects.

2017 AWARD RECIPIENTS

Owned by Dr. Holly Bannister and Mr. Douglas Newhouse; recognized for rehabilitating an 1875 carriage house by preserving and restoring much of its original historic character after years of incompatible alterations. By late 2012, the building, previously a dependency of both the Mailands and Westcliff estates, was not only aesthetically altered, but was structurally imperiled by poorly executed past repairs. Recognizing the historical significance of the carriage house, and the imminent danger it was in, the new owners committed to ensuring its preservation while also giving it a new life.

Owned by the Newport Historical Society; recognized for successfully integrating the old with the new. The property encompasses three separate historic buildings that reflect the development of the NHS since its founding. With a professional commitment to adaptive reuse of these historic buildings, the NHS brought new life to each of these existing buildings. Despite many challenges, NHS was able to maintain the architectural identity of the complex while accommodating a robust 21st century program of staff and visitor activities.

Completed by the Scenic Aquidneck Coalition, a joint effort of the Aquidneck Land Trust, the Preservation Society of Newport County, Preserve Rhode Island, the van Beuren Charitable Foundation, National Grid, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; recognized for addressing coastal resiliency and demonstrating the power of collaboration. This project removed a two-mile stretch of unsightly utility poles along Sachuest Point in Middletown, RI, after the road and dunes were severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The project not only strengthened the infrastructure of the landscape, increasing its resiliency to coastal storms in the future, but returned this area to its original historic and scenic appearance.

A special recognition will be conferred on Mr. Pieter N. Roos for his dedication to historic preservation in Newport.

In-Kind Sponsorship

2016 Award Recipients

Eisenhower House (1873), One Lincoln Drive.
Owned by the State of Rhode Island; recognized for bringing so beautifully and completely back to life one of Newport’s great Victorian gems through a complete renovation, begun in 2013, in which special care was taken to conserve original features such as wooden sash windows and the signature grand staircase of architect George Champlin Mason.

Samuel Durfee Barn (ca. 1850-76), 352 Spring Street.
Owned by Heather and Michael de Pinho; recognized for saving one of the most vulnerable kinds of historic buildings (i.e., those built with utility rather than impressive street view in mind) and maintaining so thoughtfully Newport’s mid nineteenth-century architectural heritage, while adapting the interior, with extensive reuse of original materials, for residential living.

Harbour Court (completed 1906), 5 Halidon Avenue.
Owned by the New York Yacht Club; recognized for the exemplary approach to returning exterior finishes of one of Newport’s great early twentieth-century houses to their original splendor and reworking a kitchen addition to better match the Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson design of the historic building.

2015 Award Recipients

The Audrain Building (1902-03), 220-230 Bellevue Ave., owned by American Realty Capital; recognized for returning the exterior of this landmark commercial building to its original 1903 Renaissance Revival splendor.

Victorian Gothic barn (ca. 1853) at 67 Second St., owned by David and Laura Pedrick; recognized for the rescue, relocation, and restoration, preserving close to 85% of original material, of this distinct utilitarian building form that is among the last of its kind in Newport.

Quatrel (1853; altered ca. 1900), 669 Bellevue Ave., owned by Jay and Brenda Wilson; recognized for the painstaking and meticulous restoration of the house to its ca. 1900 redesign by Ogden Codman, Jr., with a mix of Italianate and French Provincial elements.

2014 Award Recipients

The Newport Tree Society/The Newport Arboretum for its city-wide heritage horticulture projects of restoration and community education about Newport's historic landscape.